In my last post, some of you have commented that you have never heard of Better Than Sex Cake.
Wow. I highly suggest you make this cake if you never have. It's delicious. I don't want anyone to be deceived, however. Coming from someone who is highly infertile myself, I have to warn you: like sex, this cake will not make you pregnant.
But it is TASTY! For the recipe, click here. I have never used the chocolate chips though. I don't think it needs it. And the condensed milk is very sweet. I use a bit less of the milk and more of the caramel.
I have been so busy since last week that I forgot to even tell you how my weekend was last week. Chris graduated with this MBA (Master of Business Administration). I am so proud of him. I can't believe both of us are finally done with school. Last Saturday we went out with both of our parents to Chianti Grill before his graduation to celebrate. Here are pictures from BOTH of our graduations, taken about a month apart.
Also, last Sunday, my baby sister got herself good and married. What a weird feeling to see her as a married woman. She was beautiful and I am so honored that I was a part of it. I haven't decided on posting pictures, because I know this blog is very public, but believe me when I say it was a sweet wedding.
At the reception, my cousin, whom you may remember has been through multiple miscarriages and is one of the few IRL that can truly relate to me, came up to me. She gave me a bracelet. She told me she had it blessed while her and her husband were on a vacation. She had been through several miscarriages already and after she had it blessed, she found out she was pregnant not long after. "I want you to have this," she told me. I was speechless. I still am. They don't allow any jewelry during the transfer, but you can bet I will think of some way to keep this little talisman close by during it. Words cannot express how many wonderful people I have in my life. So to my cousin, I am so moved by this gift. Thank you.
And so here I am. Chris was kind enough to come to my trial transfer and saline u/s today. After the nurse brought us back into the room, she asks, "so do you know what's going to happen today?" Funny, I really had no clue what to expect. I didn't even know if my bladder was supposed to be empty or full, so I peed "a little" when I got there and then it filled up because they were running late, so by the time I was pants-less, sitting on the table, I really had to pee. Not pee-my-pants bad, but bad enough to make it uncomfortable, which in turn made me more anxious. When I get anxious, I have to pee. And so on and so forth. The nurse told us that they were going to do a normal u/s to start out, and then our doctor would do the trial transfer, and they would finish with another u/s to measure my uterus and look at the lining, making sure it was smooth, with no cysts.
She told us, it's like an IUI, "but you may have some more cramping." Man I love uterine cramping.
It ended up not being as bad as I thought. I have had IUIs with more pain than this. Luckily, Chris stood next to me holding my hand again. It's not everyday that your husband gets to check out your uterine lining. Dr K. was great. He didn't have to do anything twice and he was really gentle. He inserted a speculum, and then a catheter into my uterus. He then removed the speculum and the nurse put the dildo wand in again and we could see my uterus when he injected saline into it. There was some definite cramping, but it wasn't as bad as in the past. He said everything looked great. No cysts or anything hostile to an embryo. Smooth lining. Perfect. As usual, everything is normal. Normal, normal, normal.
The cramping was a lot worse when the catheter came out. Between the rolling uterine contractions I managed to squeak out, "Dr. K., can I take fish oil supplements?" Cramping be damned, I am a responsible infertile, even in the face of pain. And I was bound and determined to ask him that, because I had JUST bought a bottle of supplements this weekend.
Oh by the way, yes, I can take fish oil.
After our doctor and nurse left, Chris helped me up and I proceed to shuffle over to my pants. The cramping was so bad it made me double over, but it went away after about twenty minutes.
Both of us then had our bloodwork for our STD panel.
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| Who needs matching tattoos? |
I wonder what would happen if a couple had their bloodwork done and one of the tests came back positive?
Oh Mrs. Johnson, by the way, it seems our labwork shows your lying sonofabitch husband has contracted the syphilis, and you can no longer do IVF.
I wonder if that's ever happened?
Anyway, my drug paraphernalia is scheduled to arrive Wednesday. It was supposed to come last week, but our insurance won't pay for the Follistim so they had to switch it to Gonal-F and the delivery was delayed. Because... nothing in this journey has been easy. It seems there is always something. We are looking at a $400 co-pay for it all, but considering the grand total was over $3,000 before insurance... it puts it into perspective. It just causes more anxiety being that I start Lupron injections Thursday. I get the shipment Wednesday evening. I start injections Thursday. Because... of course. Labels: Doctor Appointment, IVF, lady business, life, transfer
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